N.Z. judoka deprived of bronze medal

Press, 28 September 1988, Page 32

N.Z. judoka deprived of bronze medal

PA Seoul The exhausted New Zealand judoka, Brent Cooper, last night staggered away from the Chang Chung stadium — deprived of a bronze medal by Japan’s world champion, Yosuke Yamamoto. The 65kg division fighter lost his repechage bout to Yamamoto after conceding an “ippon” (full point) when he was held down by Yamamoto for 30 seconds. “There’s been a lot of hard work in one night to come away with nothing,” Cooper said after the bout. The evening of drama began for Cooper, an international studies graduate from Japan’s top judo tertiary institution Tokai University, with ippon victories over Driss Elhamoun (Morocco) and Peter Sene (Senegal). He stumbled in his quarter-final match when the European and Polish champion, ' Janusz Pawlowski, recorded a “koka” (half point) and adopted a defensive posture for the remainder of the fight. But all was not lost as Pawlowski went on to beat Yamamoto in the semi-final — which under judo’s repechage system meant Cooper had a chance to fight for one of two bronze medals on offer. Fighters — like Cooper

— beaten by Pawlowski contested a bronze while those beaten by the eventual gold medallist, Lee Kyung-Keun (South Korea), did likewise in the top half of the draw. Pawlowski was the silver medallist while Yamamoto and Bruno Carabetta, of France, won both bronze medals. In the fight-off Philip Laats (Belgium) defeated Tommy Mortensen (Denmark) and Ivo Kostadinov (Bulgaria) before going down to Cooper. But in the bout against his Japanese training partner Yamamoto the New Zealander conceded an ippon when his shoulders were firmly pinned to the canvas for 30 seconds. After the fight against Yamamoto, Cooper said he felt absolutely exhausted. The effort had taken so much out of him the 28-year-old did not believe he would have the energy to fight in another Olympics. To qualify for the fight against Yamamoto, Cooper defeated Philip Laats, of Belgium, by an ippon. Cooper finished seventh at the 1987 world championships. He made the top eight in the Kano Cup in Japan in 1986 and finished fifth in the West German and United States Open in the same year. He has lived in Japan off and on since 1980 where his main interest has been judo.